Thoughts from Cathi

Christmas Treats! Yum!

Today’s theme topic is favourite Christmas treats! What a great topic. I love the food part of the holidays the best. Most years I start baking and cooking and freezing treats way ahead of time. This year I’m a bit behind my usual routine (READ: I’ve not baked at all yet).

I remember one year I decided I was going to make 50 different kinds of Christmas cookies. My eldest son promptly announced “I support you in meeting this goal, Mum!” I think I only got through about 37 different recipes and we were eating holiday cookies well into the New Year. LOL!

And it’s not just baking that the holidays are about in my house. We often entertain friends and family and I love to create little nibbles and appetizers to serve at those events. And then there’s the BIG DAY: the turkey dinner (in our house it includes: turkey, stuffing, gourmet mashed potatoes, fancy gravy, tofurkey for my daughter, yams and multiple veggie side dishes along with a fancy dessert). In Canada, Christmas dinner is a bigger event than Thanksgiving (which is in the second week of October here).

But if I had to pick my favourite recipe, I’d have to go for Granny’s shortbread cookies. They are plain Jane old fashioned shortbreads and they have a story.

My granny was a war bride and she grew up in England. When I was newly married I asked her for her recipe for her shortbread cookies and she told me the story that went with it: during the war, a Scottish woman came to stay with them. Her husband had been killed in action and she had nowhere to go. So my granny’s family took her in. While she was with them she taught my granny to make traditional Scottish shortbread. Granny never said what happened to the woman after the war but she made those shortbreads for the rest of her life and passed them (and the story) on to her future generations.

What a great story! My heart warmed every time I made those cookies for the next few years. That is until I told my auntie what Granny had told me. She laughed. She said “That recipe is from the rice flour box!” I couldn’t believe it! I wouldn’t believe it. My granny would NEVER make up such a story. But my aunt was adamant.

When I got home I went and looked at the recipe on the side of my rice flour box. Sure enough it was the same one. Duped by Granny!

Here’s the recipe:

Christmas Shortbread Cookies

1/4 C Rice Flour

1 C Butter

½ tsp. Salt

2 1/4 C Flour

½ C. Icing Sugar

Cream together with hands. Knead well for five minutes. Make a roll and chill. Slice and bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes. Yields 50-60 cookies.

And here’s a picture of my oldest son enjoying one of Granny’s Christmas Shortbreads during his first Christmas!

Speaking of treats, have you checked out the blog hop I’m taking part in this week? Each blog you visit has a free gift for you and you can enter to win a $100 Amazon Gift Card. Read more here!